The Adoration Bubble…Whatever Obama says, hilarity ensues.

Loading

Rich Lowry @ NRO:

All of President Barack Obama’s campaign rallies could be summed up in one sentence, “The president spoke, and hilarity ensued.”

The president doesn’t just make his fans faint, he cracks them up with a reliability that Groucho Marx or Johnny Carson might envy. The president won the Nobel Peace Prize when he really deserved to nose out Robin Williams for recognition as a “Stand-Up Icon” at the Comedy Awards.

Here is a part of a transcript of a fairly typical Obama event, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco a few days after the first debate. He was talking about Mitt Romney and taxes:

“So a few weeks ago, you can start seeing he’s figuring out, well, this isn’t maybe selling that well. (Laughter.) And then, a few nights ago — (laughter) — suddenly a guy pretending to be Mitt Romney stood on a stage next to me — (laughter and applause) — and said he’s changing his plan. He is just going to pretend it doesn’t exist. What $5 trillion tax cut? (Laughter.) I don’t know anything about a $5 trillion tax cut. Don’t pay attention to that tax cut behind the curtain. (Laughter.) During the debate he said, ‘There is no economist who can say Mitt Romney’s tax plan adds $5 trillion to the deficit if I say I will not add to the deficit with my tax plan.’ (Laughter.)”

It’s not just the mildly amusing material. He can say he’ll get rid of boondoggles and bridges to nowhere, and get laughs. He can say he’s created millions of private-sector jobs and get them rolling in the aisles. There may well be an audience out there that has laughed uproariously when he said he killed Osama bin Laden.

The laughter is testament less to Obama’s actual wit than the overriding belief among his listeners that he is witty. When his supporters arrive at an event, they expect to be entertained and dazzled. For them, he is the most interesting president in the world. He exists in a bubble of adoration almost as impenetrable as the security bubble created by the Secret Service.

This is why he can show up for the most important event of his reelection campaign, the first debate, and expect his usual talking points to be considered devastatingly dispositive. The absence of cries of “We love you!” must have been disorienting. They say that a sitting president usually loses the first debate, since he isn’t used to getting challenged. For Obama, this isn’t just a function just of the presidency, but of his existence.

All of his life he has been around people prepared to be impressed by him. President Obama once told a journalist that he believes his own bull***t. It has been his privilege to be surrounded by people who want to believe it, too.

Outside this cocoon, he has shown no great ability to persuade skeptical audiences. His make-or-break speeches on policy issues during his first term usually fizzled. He has failed to convince recalcitrant congressmen to come around on difficult legislation, or to forge relationships with them so that they’ll do him favors when the chips are down. He’s a glittering object to be admired from afar.

Read more

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
7 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Obama “has failed to convince recalcitrant congressmen to come around on difficult legislation, or to forge relationships with them so that they’ll do him favors when the chips are down?”
I never knew he tried!

Doesn’t match the conservative ‘non-fact’ bubble in which they live.

@Liberal1 (Subjectivity): Please don’t even try that tired old cliche. By definition, anyone still supporting Obama is simply unaware of what’s happening around him. That would be YOU, for example. Unless, of course, you are pleased with the current flailing economy, wrecked foreign policy and paternalistic idiocy displayed by the current administration.

Rich Lowry
yes and if we notice they all laugh at the same time, there surely is
someone with a stick swinging it in the back of the camera, like a maestro,
and they must get paid for it too.
thank you for the POST.

DID THE MEDIA NOTICE THIS?
Obama says “My current Vice-President…”
Does BO know something that Joe doesn’t know?
http://www.conservativedailyne

plainjane31
hi, just to say the link is not to be found,
bye

@alanstorm: And imbecile of a P(poser)-POTUS. Liberal1 looks to experience our ambassador’s BOHICA moment.